One sunny afternoon at the end of February we headed out after an early lunch to explore some more of the Banks Peninsula. We took the scenic route around Lyttleton Bay and after passing through Governor’s Bay and Diamond Harbour we headed up and over one of the ridges towards Pigeon Bay. Despite having checked out the route before we left we weren’t expecting the very narrow, single lane dirt road that wound up the steep hillsides. The drive through green hills that were covered in sheep was very scenic, although the thought of oncoming traffic meant that we kept going as quickly as we dared until we reached the waterfront in Pigeon Bay.
The hike started from the wharf at the edge of the hamlet but quickly left the cottages of Pigeon Bay behind as we walked through a small wooded area. After leaving the trees the view opened up and we could start to see the bay along which the trail skirted.
The track continued to follow the edge of the bay giving us great views back towards Pigeon Bay as well as out towards the ocean.
Eventually the footpath curved away from the farm track we had been following and lead us out towards the cliffs. From the clifftops we had a great view out towards a series of sea stacks that had formed off of the cliffs. Although some sea fog had developed we could see some of the neighbouring bays as well as New Brighton Beach in Christchurch in the distance.
The wind had picked up a little at this point and so we found a sheltered spot on the headland to have a quick snack before retracing our steps back to Pigeon Bay. As we rounded a corner on the track we were surprised to see a herd of sheep heading towards us up the road. We assumed that they would ignore us as we wandered by but instead they appeared rather startled and took off down the steep slope at great speed!
